The present invention relates to robots and more particularly to robot controls that are capable of controlling the time with which programmed moves are executed.
In the operation of robots, end effector moves are normally executed with programmed acceleration, slew and deceleration subject to limiting robot parameters. Accordingly, the time required for robot arm movement over each path segment or over an entire path normally is the time required to make the move with the programmed parameters.
In various system applications, robot operation must be time coordinated with the operation of other items of equipment. To satisfy this requirement, programmed robot moves may have to be executed with a prescribed or desired cycle time or with a time that is less than a prescribed limit value.
While acceleration, slew and deceleration values can be selected during robot program generation in effect to set the time with which robot moves are to be made, this is a somewhat cumbersome timing control process especially where a number of timed moves are needed in a robot program. For greater convenience, it is desirable that a robot control be structured to implement automatically timed moves for which time specifications have been provided in the robot program.
In the referenced patent applications, there is disclosed a new completely digital multiaxis robot control which facilitates the achievement of timing control over robot motion. The present invention is set forth herein as embodied in that digital robot control and it is directed to multiaxis robots for which motion timing control is integrated into the robot motion control system.